Emails flooded in, threatening to never eat at Tokyo Joe’s again because an employee had a nose
ring or demanding to know how they could possibly explain to their children about “these tattooed
people.” Larry’s endearing and respectful responses to negative emails actually helped a lot of
people open their minds to modified people. “It’s been great for us, as well as the customers. To some
degree, we felt like we were even widening people’s horizons, especially in the beginning. At that
time, and even now, if someone was helped by an employee that was heavily tattooed or pierced,
and received great customer service and the food was great, suddenly they leave with a different
paradigm in their head of the world at large,” Larry explains. Though they weren’t doing this for strictly
altruistic reasons, it was a great side effect of what they stood for.
Employee morale at Tokyo Joe’s is above and beyond, simply due to the fact that they are
encouraged to be themselves. Their loyalty remains steadfast, with several employees even sporting
Tokyo Joe’s tattoos. Many of those who were the company’s first employees are now Joe’s upper
echelon of directors and managers. Eddie Campbell, a regional manager of Tokyo Joe’s has been a
part of the team since the early days. “To this day, Tokyo Joe’s has had a massive amount of loyalty,
not just from the employees, but from the customers as well,” Larry says.
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